Engels, F. and Marx, K. (1969) ‘The Communist Manifesto’ in Selected Works, Volume One, Moscow: Progress Publishers, pp. 98-137.
The Manifest is a declaration of the power and ideology of Communism, and analyzes the problems of class struggle, capitalism, and their contributing elements. The bourgeoisie’s formation of free trade transformed non-bourgeoisie society into sectors of labourers, while controlling and mastering their modes of production and social statuses. Engels and Marx anticipate that the bourgeoisie’s exploitation of the proletariat will result in a revolution that will end capitalism, and place the proletariat on the top of the pyramid. Then, the authors draw the contours of the relationship between the proletarian and the conscious communist. The latter has the understanding of the conditions of proletarian movements, and the tools to transform them into a fundamental political power. One method would be to annul bourgeoisie assets and convert them into social property. Later on, the authors contrast communism against rival political approaches, stress how communism is a prevailing social pattern, and also discusses class struggles in other European countries. The bottom line of the Manifest is a call to communists to radically dispose of their existing social patterns by gaining the raging support of a united proletariat - a majority that has everything to gain. Clearly, communism has self-destructed, but its analysis of society is still valid in many ways today.
Freud, S. (1930/1961) ‘Civilization’ in Lemert, C. (2004) Social Theory: The Classical and Multicultural Readings Oxford: Westview, Pp. 145-148.
Freud discusses the analogy between the process of civilization and the unfolding psychology of the individual. He argues that the origins of the cultural and individual super-egos are parallel, as they are based on the primal fathers’ footprints. When these super-egos deal with human interrelations, they demand idealistic behaviours from their subjects. One of the greatest values (and obstacles) humans have ever idealized is the commandment of “Love thy neighbour as thyself” - a value that has never been fulfilled by any society. In his analogy of the cultural and individual super-egos, Freud claims that they do not take in mind, or care, if their demands can be fulfilled by their subjects. As a result, the ego’s incapability of mastering the id on behalf of the super-ego, results in mutiny, neurosis, or an equally extreme state of unhappiness. In Freud’s view, these ethics are nothing but collective narcissistic masturbation. Later on, he condemns the belief that civilization could ever reach this inconceivable perfection, and says that civilization is doomed to the atrocities of the human instinct of aggressiveness and self-destruction. The fact that men know they have the power to exterminate each other is what imprisons them in a constant state of unrest, unhappiness, and anxiety. Freud’s pessimistic pre WWII ideas are still evident in today’s human condition, and they also correspond with Césaire’s Post WWII optimistic Marxist approach.
Césaire, A. (1955/2001) Discourse on Colonialism New York: Monthly Review Press.
In this harsh critique of western civilization, Césaire marks out the constitutive characteristics of two major troubles caused and unsolved by it; proletarian class struggle and colonialism. The big lie under which colonization masks itself is the generous project of helping “barbarian” societies into modernity. Césaire argues that colonization has not built contact with other civilizations, apart from shedding blood of the innocent, and to justify it for a greater “ideology”. He explains that colonialism has a deep root in Nazism, and such justifications are a clear sign of a perverted civilization. Later on Césaire talks about how the colonized have been turned into things, whose existence is solely to serve the “civilized”, and thus eliminating their right for history. Further more, he explains how Europe represses these cultures, while it pretends to be the climax of humanity. Césaire’s main argument is not only the dehumanization of the colonized but also the dehumanization of the colonizer himself. He sums up his approach hopefully; Europe cannot redeem itself from its transgression against humanity unless it forms a proletarian unity. It needs a revolution that will throw back the dehumanized bourgeoisie to reflect on its past, while the proletariat establishes universal equality. Although his analysis of the European condition is accurate, Césaire’s view of the future did not sustain.
